Hangers are commonly used to facilitate the hanging or draping of various garments, including items of clothing such as coats, jackets, shirts, and pants, tablecloths, sheets, and the like. Hanging garments, as opposed to folding them, helps to prevent the occurrence of wrinkles and can also facilitate the aeration of the garment. Hangers generally can comprise two shapes: human shoulder and clamp. Human shoulder shaped hangers are designed for use with jackets, shirts, and blouses, while clamp hangers are designed to hang skirts and pants. The materials with which hangers are made include wire, plastic, and wood.
Clothes hangers work by placing apparel on the shoulders of the hanger, fastening the apparel to the clamps on the hanger, or draping a garment over a horizontal member of the hanger, and placing a hook-shaped portion of the hanger over a garment-supporting rod. Such garment-supporting rods may be in closets, garment racks including mobile garment racks, dry cleaning facilities, or industrial laundry facilities. Oftentimes, because of the shape of the hook portion of the hanger and excessive movement, hangers may fall from garment-supporting rods. This may especially be a concern where large amounts of garments on hangers must be transported from one location to another, such as at dry cleaners or industry laundry facilities.
To address the need to secure hangers to a garment-supporting rod, various types of support structures have been developed. Some examples of hanger securing structures are disclosed in the following patents: U.S. Pat. No. 5,139,298 to Dowell; U.S. Pat. No. 3,021,958 to Winkler; U.S. Pat. No. 6,223,915 to Warner; and Japanese Publication No. 09038387 to Tanmachi Toshiyuki, all of which are incorporated herein by reference. However, none of these references disclose a hanger retainer that individually secures each hanger to a garment-supporting rod to prevent the hanger from falling from the garment-supporting rod and from shifting along the rod during transport.
There remains a need for an improved hanger retainer, system, and method for securing hangers on garment supporting rods such that the hangers do not fall off of the rod and do not shift along the rod during transport.